aluminum channel

[harleymike]

I have ordered my led's.
I was going to hit Home Depot tomorrow for aluminum channel.
But i see it comes in all different width's.
How wide are the led's.
thanks again
MIke

 

[Pistol]

most are mounted on a 20mm printed circuit board

 

[KBennett]

I used the 3/4".  Mine are phillips, but I imagine the stars are the same.

A word of warning.  Home depot doesn't keep the 3/4" U channel with the other metal strips.  I looked everywhere and actually got mine from HD in the states.

I found out recently that they keep it with the lumber. It is made to protect plywood edges or something.  Lowes has it with the other metal strips....

 

[Duke]

i got it from a different isle, its actually aluminum u trim for 3/4 inch plywood or drywall or something, its down by the drywall isle in sarnia.

 

[harleymike]

Ok, thanks guys

 

[KBennett]

FYI, I have up to 8 per 2 foot strip, but I think that is pushing it without a cooling fan above them. 
Any more that I add will only be 2 or 3 per foot.

 

[Duke]

FYI, I have up to 8 per 2 foot strip, but I think that is pushing it without a cooling fan above them. 
Any more that I add will only be 2 or 3 per foot.

i have 20 or so per 4 ft but i have a cooling fan on them, without it they get hot.

 

[harleymike]

hmm ok. I better spread them out more. LOL
I just drew it up with 6 led's per 18inch strip over the 15 gallon. Total 18 leds.

Going to do 9 led's per 4 foot strip x 2 all royal blue over the 135 gallon.

 

[MrHermit85]

Yeah got mine at Home Depot too. In the trim section close to the acrylic sheets and used the 3/4" for my bridgelux leds.

 

[harleymike]

Do you think the 1" would be better for heat transfer. Or just stick with 3/4 inch.

 

[MrHermit85]

More surface area means more heat dissipation... That's why heatsinks have all those fins

 

[harleymike]

Did you guys use the lens, or just leave them open. I ordered 60 deg lens's.

 

[Duke]

Do you think the 1\" would be better for heat transfer. Or just stick with 3/4 inch.

mine might be 1" i got the biggest they had, my first strip is a 4' aluminum window track, its much heavier and can hold the heat good, but its also about 2" wide..

 

[Duke]

Did you guys use the lens, or just leave them open. I ordered 60 deg lens's.

i got 80's on most of mine, some i left optics off which iirc is about 120 degrees of spread to help blend it all together..

 

[harleymike]

I was thinking that too. Leave some off. Its 120 deg.
Maybe I should have ordered 80. But it will be about 8 inches above the water.

 

[KBennett]

  The more surface area the better, but room between them is important too.  Not that you have to worry much about that with only having a couple strips 
By the way, I looked, but couldn't find any 1" anywhere.

I don't have lenses on mine.  I think people forget that the water surface acts as a lens of sorts (internal refraction).  When I did the math, and drew it out, I wasn't losing much light outside the tank.  Most of the light was pointed downward at the surface.  In your case, you probably don't want to use the lenses because you might just get 2 spotlit streaks,

 

[MrHermit85]

I use the lenses. They make a big difference with the focus area. (Mine are quite high off the water surface too and I don't notice any spotlighting. I have the ones wider than 60 degrees though. Watch your wire placement when soldering as if the wire isn't in a good spot the lenses won't fit on. I learnt the hard way.

PS: I just measured my u-channel and I actually have 1"

 

[harleymike]

ok, 1" it is.
Im going too email them and change my optics too 80 deg.

 

[Duke]

  The more surface area the better, but room between them is important too.  Not that you have to worry much about that with only having a couple strips 
By the way, I looked, but couldn't find any 1\" anywhere.

I don't have lenses on mine.  I think people forget that the water surface acts as a lens of sorts (internal refraction).  When I did the math, and drew it out, I wasn't losing much light outside the tank.  Most of the light was pointed downward at the surface.  In your case, you probably don't want to use the lenses because you might just get 2 spotlit streaks,

this might be true but i used a par meter and my numbers were significantly better with the optics down low on the sand bed especially.

 

[harleymike]

This is the layout over a 15 gallon tank